When Howin Chui opened Kowloon Cafe in Burwood last year, the interior was adorned with a Hong Kong minibus.

Now the transport-obsessed restaurateur has recreated a double-decker Hong Kong tram at a new Kowloon Cafe, which opened this month in Eastwood.

The restaurant, which defied public transport tradition by opening on time, draws inspiration from Hong Kong.

Chui, and his business partners Howard Lee and Gary Tsui, want that experience to extend from the food (hello HK-style French toast with condensed milk, honey and maple syrup) to the neon-signed interior.

In Burwood, they had to cut the bus into six pieces to get it inside. For the tram, designer Darren Kong got hold of some plans from Hong Kong and had it built from scratch.

The Eastwood menu traffics in Kowloon Cafe staples, including its signature crispy butter pineapple bun, and HK fast food favourites such as spam and egg sandwiches, plus the more substantial black bean beef with rice noodles.

If Chui and his partners open more Kowloon Cafes, have they created a design monster with his riff on HK transport?

“I’m not sure where we’d go next,” Chui says. “We haven’t done a taxi, but it’d take up too much seating space. Maybe a Cathay Pacific plane?”

Yum cha served from airline food trolleys? Fasten your seatbelts.

Open Mon-Sat 11.30am-9pm.

Shop 1, 148-150 Rowe Street, Eastwood, kowlooncafe.com.au